Srinagar, May 10, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, complete shutdown was observed on the fifth consecutive day, today, in Pulwama and Shopian districts against the recent killings by the Indian troops. All shops, business establishments, government and private offices were closed and roads wore a deserted look in the twin districts. Train service between Srinagar and Banihal was suspended. Students of Government Degree College in Sumbal area of Bandipora district, today, held a protest demonstration against the killings. They shouting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans held a march towards the main town. The students also offered funeral prayers in absentia for the martyrs.
The forum led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq reacting to the assertions of Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat about Kashmir said that the British forces ruled India for more than 100 years, killing thousands of Indians and committing massacres like Jallianwala Bagh. However, the statement said that they had to abdicate because the will and desire of people to be free to choose their destiny and be masters of their fate was far stronger than their military power. The forum said the Indian army chief needs to ask his political bosses the basic question why does a regular army need to be stationed in Jammu and Kashmir outside people’s homes in such huge numbers. The Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, Muhammad Yasin Malik in a statement said that sooner or later India would have to free Kashmir from its illegal occupation. The Democratic Freedom Party termed the assertions of Indian Army Chief as provocative. General Rawat in a media interview in New Delhi had ruled out freedom for the Kashmiri people.
Noted Indian political analyst O P Shaw talking to a Srinagar-based English daily over phone from New Delhi urged the Indian government to hold dialogue with all stakeholders including Hurriyat leadership and mujahideen to end bloodshed in occupied Kashmir. The Grand Mufti-designate and vice Chairman of Kashmir’s Muslim Personal Law Board, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam in a media interview in Srinagar said that India could not win the war against the Kashmiris and would leave the territory by 2025.
Hurriyat leaders Mohammad Yousuf Naqash, Javaid Ahmad Mir and Hakim Abdul Rashid visited SMHS Hospital to enquire about the health of pellet and bullet youth, injured in firing by Indian troops on protesters in Shopian on Sunday. Hurriyat leader Mukhtar Ahmad Waza addressing a gathering at Badroo Mehand in Bijbehra urged the international human rights organizations to play their part in stopping the ongoing bloodshed in Kashmir.
An Indian soldier committed suicide by shooting himself with his service rifle at his camp in Kunzer area of Baramulla district, today. This incident of suicide raised the number of such deaths among the Indian troops and police personnel in the territory to 401 since 2007.
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